Diane Bell

Diane Bell has undertaken extensive fieldwork, over the past four decades, in communities across the north and in the southeast of Australia as well as comparative research in North America. She has written with passion and courage of matters concerning Aboriginal society with particular emphasis on land rights, native title, law reform, women’s rights, violence against women, religion and the environment.

Diane Bell began her working life as a primary school teacher in the 1960s, returned to full time study in the 70s, and as a single mum, completed her BA Hons (Monash University 1975) and PhD (ANU 1981). She has held senior positions in higher education in Australia and the USA, acted as consultant to various NGOs, Indigenous organisations and governmental entities, and has been honoured as a writer, academic and social justice advocate.

After 17 years in the USA, Diane retired as Professor Emerita of Anthropology, The George Washington University, DC, USA and, on returning to Australia, settled on the banks of the Finniss River, South Australia, in Ngarrindjeri country. She prepared the Ngarrindjeri Consent Determination Native Title Report, ran for the House of Representatives seat of Mayo (South Australia) in the 2008 by-election, furthered her creative writing as Writer and Editor in Residence at Flinders University, taught at the University of Adelaide and, through membership of various environmental NGOs, argued for a return of water to the Murray-Darling River system.

Diane now lives in Canberra where she continues to write, speak, strategise and advocate for a more just society: a concept that underwrites and unifies the various and varied facets of her feminist anthropological stance on life.